


Statement: Specialist P. Rowling

by ProwlingThunder



Category: Exalted (Roleplaying Game), Jack Reacher Series - Lee Child
Genre: Captives and Captors, Chosen of Battles, Gen, Improbable Escapes, Martial Arts: Black Claw Style, Military Cops, Side Effects of the Broken Mask, Sidereals, Soldiers, Taking Statements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21985867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: Jack Reacher meets an old soldier in one specialist.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	Statement: Specialist P. Rowling

The soldier (soldier? Reacher is relatively sure the man  _ is _ a soldier, at the end of things, but it feels like he's something  _ more.  _ He didn't survive this long by being bad at his job, though, by denying his gut instincts, so he knows that  _ more _ must be something important. Still, he can't put his finger on it.) sits neatly on his chair, teetering on the edge of polite and dutifully over brash and disorderly.

Jack knows he has been instructed to comply with the investigation, and nothing in the soldier's evaluations says that he will do anything but what he's been told, but.

But.

It should be  _ entirely  _ cut and dry. Specialist P. Rowling was by the book, and everybody seemed to like him. He was  _ good _ at what he did, and was soon to have promotions and commendations stacked on him like few men before or after,  _ especially _ after pulling his whole unit out of that hell. But it was how he had done it that had the brass chomping at the bit.

Because... because everyone agreed that the soldier had engaged one of their captors in conversation-- an innocuous thing, by all accounts, a potted cactus someone had left in their cell-- and that had led into...

A key, maybe. Or a helping hand. Or a fight. Or all three, not necessarily in that order. Different soldiers in different states of lucidity had strung the whole mess together, but no one had gotten Specialist Rowling's statement yet. Everyone agreed that there had been a fight, though. Between Rowling and the insurgent leader. Though what it was over was... flexible. And all except the injured medic-- half-dead, held together with stubbornness and duct-tape dealt by Rowling's attentions-- all agreed that Rowling hadn't been trying to fight, honestly hadn't really fought back at all. Hell, even the insurgents they had taken into custody agreed that Rowling hadn't fought back-- that their leader, for no reason whatsoever, had decided to be an asshole ("Well," one insurgent had admitted wryly, "More of an asshole than normal,") and try to  _ attack him, _ and Rowling had stumbled and flailed a bit until no one could  _ stand _ it anymore and one of the locals had put a round in his leader's skull.

Which. Really. That was the part that was getting Reacher the hardest. Because Rowling didn't look like the sort of guy to stumble or  _ trip _ and he sure as hell didn't seem like he was going to do any sort of flailing at all.

Though he did seem like the sort that could charm a half-dozen would-be terrorists into helping him free his people, which everyone, even the medic, had agreed was more or less what happened.

Jack frowned at him. Rowling stared back, fathomless red eyes piercing into his heart like a thousand scarlet needles. Waiting.

Some invisible pendulum shifted.

"No one's gotten your side of the story yet. What do you say we change that?"

Dark lips pulled back into a tired smile, and it struck Reacher then that he  _ felt  _ so much older than the mere twenty-one recorded on his files. It made him feel extremely young in comparison. "I'm certain you've heard all the sides of the story that matter, sir."

"Humor me."

"As you wish."

**Author's Note:**

> Exalted Martial Arts referenced in this work:
> 
> [Black Claw Style](https://codreams.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Claw_Style)
> 
> [Black Claw Style Tree](http://www.madletter.net/rpg/exalted/cascades/ma/cascade_v3_ma09_blackclaw.pdf)


End file.
